Travel: The new Pittsburgh is a ‘livable’ city

Duquesne Incline

The Duquesne Incline offers a great view of the Pittsburgh downtown and the city's three rivers.

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Joshua Franzos/Joahua Franzos

The majestic Diplodocus carnegii and Apatosaurus louisae, among the largest species of dinosaurs ever to walk the Earth, tower over visitors in Dinosaurs in their Time at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Diplodocus and Apatosaurus were discovered in 1899 and 1909 respectively. Diplodocus carnegii is named after Andrew Carnegie while Apatosaurus louisae is named after Carnegie?s wife Louise. Photo credit: Joahua Franzos Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Pittsburgh waterfront

Courtesy of Visit Pittsburgh

The Pittsburgh skyline at night.

Aerial view

Courtesy of Visit Pittsburgh

Aerial view of downtown Pittsburgh and the three rivers.

Museum of Art

Keith Srakocic/The Associated Press

A worker at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh looks over a Japanese made silk woven screen called Morning Sea, by Hashio Kiyoshi (Kajimoto Seizaburo) from the 1915 Panama- Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. This is part of the Inventing the Modern World exhibit at the museum through Feb. 24, 2013. The show features works of furniture, metalwork, glass, ceramics, textiles, and jewelry produced by international artists and businesses made for world’s fairs, from London’s Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in 1851, to the New York World’s Fair in 1939.

PPG Plaza in Pittsburgh

Philip Scalia/Courtesy of Visit Pittsburgh

Children play in fountain at PPG Place in Pittsburgh, a glass and steel marvel designed by Philip Johnson.

Heinz Field

My cab driver, a retired real estate agent who said he was doing the airport run two days a week to stay busy, had lots of trivia to share about his hometown as he drove me into downtown Pittsburgh from the airport.

The engineer George Ferris lived in the Pennsylvania city, he said, and invented the Ferris wheel there for its introduction at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. Artist Andy Warhol was born in Pittsburgh. It’s also the home of Heinz, the food giant. And the Big Mac was invented there in 1967 at a local McDonald’s franchise.

It’s an awesome town, the cab driver concluded,as we emerged from the Fort Pitt Tunnel that carries motorists under Mount Washington and into the west end of the downtown.

Once known as Steeltown, Pittsburgh was one of “Ten American Comeback Cities” identified by Forbes magazine last March. It has also been on National Geographic Traveller magazine’s list of “most livable cities.”

It’s the home of the Steelers football team, the Pirates baseball team and the Penguins hockey team — so if your family follows pro sports, it is an ideal road trip destination — about a six-hour drive from Waterloo Region and Guelph.

It’s also an attractive and walkable city, with plenty of things to do when you get there.

Pittsburgh is situated at the confluence of three rivers — the Allegheny and the Monongahela converge here to form the Ohio River, all three tributaries of the mighty Mississippi — which means it’s also a city of bridges.

From my 10th-floor room in the Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel — it’s a Marriott hotel created in 2001 in the city’s historic Fulton building and on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places — I could look out over PNC Park, where the Pirates play, just across the river. I could also walk to the stadium by crossing the 6th Street Bridge. It’s at the edge of the city’s cultural district, which has several theatres and lively restaurants.

Getting around Pittsburgh on foot is easy and the recently opened subway allows free travel to three downtown stops. The cost for this has been sponsored by a local company for three years to help get the system up and running. At street level, colour coded signs called Wayfinders help you get your bearings and point the way to colourful ethnic and historic neighbourhoods.

Once the steel capital of America, Pittsburgh was for years one of the most polluted cities in the United States. Then the so-called Clean Air Act of the 1980s and an upheaval in the U.S. steel industry changed the local economy.

Pittsburgh has a vibrant arts scene.

If you’re interested in pop culture, the Andy Warhol Museum is the place to go. It displays art from its collection and hosts touring art exhibits. It also screens films and videos.

But the jewel in the cultural crown is the Carnegie Museum of Art and Natural History, adjoining the prestigious CarnegieMellon University.

Inventing the Modern World: Decorative Arts at the World’s Fairs, 1851-1939.

Hand Made: Contemporary Craft in Ceramic, Glass, and Wood.

Past Meets Present: Decorative Arts and Design.

Upcoming exhibitions include: 20/20: Celebrating Two Decades of the Heinz Architectural Centre (opens Feb. 9) and Japan is the Key (opens March 30).

Children will be probably more interested in the adjoining museum of natural history, which is especially good for learning about dinosaurs.

Visitors can watch through a window as researchers dissect bones, then handle some of the bones themselves. There is a mineral gallery with precious metals and minerals and a stunning collection of gemstones.

Upstairs, there’s a cavernous hall with displays of stuffed animals from North America, including bears, moose and buffalo, and other continents.

The nearby Frick Art and Cultural Museum is interesting as well. It’s located in a home that was the residence of 19th-century industrialist Henry Clay Frick, a colleague of both Andrew Mellon and Andrew Carnegie.

The house was occupied by his daughter Helen well into the 20th century and it is thanks to her that it has been preserved. Most of the furnishings are original and the coach house contains the family carriages and automobiles. The museum also hosts many cultural and educational events including art exhibitions and concerts and has an excellent restaurant, The Café at the Frick, for a leisurely lunch.

Add to this several other Pittsburgh attractions — a children’s museum, a waterfront, festivals and a busy performing arts scene — and it should be easy to find something for everyone to enjoy.

End your visit with a trip up the Duquesne Incline, which is open daily and goes up and down Mount Washington.

This cable car service once carried weary steel workers from the downtown factories up the hill to their homes. Once there were 17 cable car lines in the city, but now only two remain.

The Duquesne trolley car has been restored to appear as it did more than 100 years ago. A $2.50 ticket will take you to the top where the walls of the original waiting rooms have many old pictures and mementoes reflecting Pittsburgh’s past.

At night, the view over the downtown lights is spectacular, a last image that will help you remember your visit.